Today we got to table at the “Spring Zine Thing,” a zine fair put on by Somerville community members at the Washington Street Art Center. It was a great event with lots of local artists and zinesters. Check out the list below to see some of the great zines and zine-making groups in the Boston area!

Papercut was happy to be invited to Gately Youth Center in North Cambridge to talk about zine making with young people in their girls’ zine project. This awesome group has been working on zine content ever since seeing the work of a local zinester several months ago; each week the participants brainstorm words related to middle school, pick two words out of a hat, and make pages recording their thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Papercut librarians Kimberly and Anna brought some examples of different ways to approach zine making with images, words, and book arts. We are looking forward to cataloging the Gately zine when it is completed!

Over the past year we have enjoyed working with young people and teachers in classrooms and after schools. Contact us if you are interested in having a zine workshop visit your school or program!

As you may have heard in our last post, we are extending our fund raising drive to make one final push to $3500!

As one of our final incentives we want to help you kick off summer in Boston right, so we’re raffling off chances to win great times and great treats from two of Somerville’s beloved eateries and treateries:

Had a great time at today’s Carnaval @SomerStreets! We were glad to be asked to participate by East Somerville Mainstreets, a great, local non-profit “dedicated to developing community initiatives and events that reflect and promote the true character of East Somerville as a vibrant place to live, visit, and do business.” It’s awesome to have the opportunity to connect with our neighbors and other members of the community!

We all know what public libraries are and that they’re in trouble. Even in Somerville, we’re hearing about the funding battles and support campaigns underway. At this month’s sprout spaghetti dinner, we’re going to look at a different set of libraries and library services–not your typical libraries. Maybe they don’t traffic in books; maybe they aren’t run by the government; maybe they’re just bookcases in someone’s living room. Whatever it is that sets these libraries apart, we want to hear their stories and how they handle issues that we traditionally associate with Public Libraries: access, censorship, safety, sharing, curation, and more.

Our performers will include ::
+ Sara Peattie and The Puppet Free Library
+ Heather McCann and The Boston Radical Reference Collective
+ personal monologues sharing small-scale libraries in people’s homes and workplaces
+ Anna Mudd and other members of The Papercut Zine Library
+ with music from The Moondog Madrigal & The Spaghetti Dinner House Band

We sincerely hope that you can make it out, in spite of the snow! (You do not want to miss our dance routine…)

Our zines are currently living in a new space at 10 Ward St. in Somerville.

We will be open Sundays from 2pm to 7pm or, as always, we are happy to open by appointment. Email, call, or text us for the address and directions.

You can also contact us to set up an event, book us for a workshop, or have us curate a pop-up library at your event or classroom!

Since we've moved to a new space, zines are back in circulation! If you have any of our zines that you forgot to return, please bring them home (and take out some new ones!).

About Us

Papercut is a fully-functioning lending library, with a focus on hand-made and independently produced materials. Our collection includes everything from the all-familiar photocopied punk rock zines from the 80's to hand-crafted personal zines bound together with yarn.

Papercut is run by a collective of volunteer librarians. In addition to archiving and maintaining this collection, librarians also host a number of events including zine making workshops and zine release parties.

Become a member today to join this growing community of zine enthusiasts!